Fahad Mustafa credits Bollywood’s Govinda for inspiring him to act at the Filmfare Middle East Achievers Night

The Filmfare Middle East Achievers Night in Dubai on Saturday night was a star-studded affair and Pakistani celebrities were honoured alongside their Bollywood counterparts. Sajal Aly, Fahad Mustafa and Humayun Saeed were awarded for their work in the entertainment industry. In his acceptance speech, Mustafa credited Bollywood star Govinda for inspiring him to start acting in the first place. He also rushed from the stage and embraced the Coolie No.1 actor.

On Saturday, Aly was awarded Most Popular Face of Pakistani Cinema, Saeed Trendsetter of Pakistani Cinema and Mustafa Promising Star of Pakistan. In his speech, Saeed spoke about his win and the possibility of going to India. Aly thanked Saeed for giving her an opportunity to act in her own speech and for believing in her.

Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad actor Mustafa dedicated his speech to Govinda. “This is an honour, be it as a Pakistani or Indian actor. To stand on Filmfare’s stage, we all prepared our speeches. Sajal, I can’t top that by the way, you did an amazing job,” he said.

“I started acting in the first place because of Govinda sir. We are your fans and in Pakistan we always thought if we have to act in a certain way, it has to be like you,” said Mustafa, who then praised Ranveer Singh’s acting.

He added that he counts himself lucky to be standing on the same stage as Govinda and asked the audience to give him a round of applause. “I hope Pakistan and India unite again to do good work,” he said.

Mustafa wasn’t the only one who cosied up to Bollywood A-listers during the event. Aly was also seen having a moment with Janhvi Kapoor before heading onto the stage.

Hema Malini, Arjun Kapoor Ayushmann Khurrana, Shehnaaz Gill, Bhumi Pednekar, Sunny Leone, Manushi Chhillar, Vaani Kapoor, Maniesh Paul, Rakhi Sawant, Tamannaah Bhatia, Bharti Singh, Kanika Kapoor, Sharvari Wagh, Tejasswi Prakash and Karan Kundrra, among many others were also seen at the awards.